This recipe has an interesting story, for several reasons. I got the link to the recipe from a friend from London, who got it from a Polish friend of ours. I don't know the origin of the dish, but when I saw it, knew right away I'm going to try it our one day. Why one day and not right away? Because it's not exactly a light summer dish, it's more like winter comfort food, but today it was finally the day to give it a try and I don't regret it. Not one bit.

The original recipe can be found here. I didn't follow the recipe to the letter, so I'm going to specify where I deviated from it, to give you the opportunity to decide which one you want to follow.

So let's see what I used for this recipe.

Ingredients:

500g sausage,
1 big red bell pepper,
1 big yellow onion,
1 big tomato,
250g carrots,
750g potato,
240g white beans,
few garlic cloves,
3 tblspoons of olive oil,
2 teaspoon salt,
2 teaspoon red paprika powder,
1 tblspoon of soy sauce,
1 pinch of pepper.

Before I start with the process, let me tell you what I did differently, except for the quantities.

The original recipe has celery, which I didn't use as I don't really like it. It also has tomato paste. I used one big fresh tomato instead, because it's the season and had a good one from my dad's garden. No way I am going to use canned tomato when I have the tastiest homegrown one.

The other thing I did differently was with the sausage. The original recipe sautéd the sausage. I didn't, because the sausage I used contains less fat and I saw no need for that.

Process:

I sliced all the vegetables and the sausage too. Added oil to a pot, then added the onion, garlic, paprika and carrots.

Sautéing the carrots is always a good idea, because it gives the dish a nice color, which here is lost as the tomato and paprika powder overtake the color, but there's another benefit too. β-Carotene is one of the most important fat soluble pigments with well-known antioxidant and pro-vitamin A activity. Thus, oil is needed.

After that, I added the sausage, sautéd for a few minutes, after which I added the red paprika powder and added water to cover. Because these were fresh, summer veggies, especially the carrot, and didn't need a long cooking time, I added the potato as well, the soy sauce, plus the salt and pepper.

If you're new to using red paprika powder, make sure to add water shortly after adding the paprika to the mix, as it burns easily and the whole dish becomes bitter. Make sure not to exaggerate with the water as this is supposed to be a stew, but if you like, you can make it a soup as well as it would taste just as good as the stew.

Cooked until the carrot and potato was tender, then added the tomato. I don't like to add the tomatoes sooner as it can make cooking more difficult or slow it down.

When the tomato was also tender, finally added the peas. Peas were already well cooked, so after adding them to the mix, I only cooked it for 5 minutes, for the flavor to mix well.

I must admit, apart from the main idea and ingredients, the rest I improvised, or made it as I thought it would be right and let me tell you, the outcome was excellent. I love this recipe and most likely it's going to be regular on my table, once the cold season kicks in.

If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:

Sausage Stew

Ingredients:

Process: